We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Kelson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.

Alright, Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

A defining moment in my career was when I received and $5 Starbucks gift card and a short thank you note for being the lead clinician for a new senior living community that the company I worked for at the time had a contract with.

This was part of the final straw as to why I left that job because I had taken on a lead role which required a lot more time in meetings, administration, and coordination with team members. However despite all of this extra work I received a pay cut because I was only reimbursed half of my per treatment visit rate for all the meetings, about $20-25, that I was required to be a part of and usually had to sit there for about an hour.

So after a few months of this and then receiving a $5 gift card, which is the worst gift to receive as an employee because it always to somewhere you don’t want to go, I truly didn’t feel appreciated and shortly after was when I decided to quit and work on starting my own business.

That was October of 2021 and of the lessons I’ve learned or wish I could tell bosses is stop giving gift cards as a thank you, give a significant bonus in pay because that’s actually meaningful. Also, make sure that if you don’t feel appreciated at a job make sure to speak up, ask for what you need, or leave if that best suits you. I’m definitely not still holding a grudge at a $5 gift card and a pay cut for more responsibility.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Here’s a short synopsis about me.

I’m a California native who ended up in North Carolina and went to East Carolina University to get a B.S. in Exercise Physiology and a Doctorate of Physical Therapy. I was the forever injured athlete. I had stress fractures at the end of every track season and broke my arm and a couple of fingers playing basketball.

Once I graduated from ECU in 2020, I moved to Denver to and after about 2 years of being a staff physical therapist I decided to start my own business, Three Lions Physical Therapy PLLC.

Three Lions Physical Therapy got it’s name from, The Three Lions, which is the mascot for all England international teams and a little homage to my parents who emigrated from the UK to the US in the 80s.

The practice is self is a mobile cash pay clinic, so I come to you and work 1 on 1 for about 45 minutes to an hour. I work best with those who are active and can’t sit still or lead busy lives. That includes runners, CrossFit athletes, regular gym goers, or those weekend warriors playing in recreational sports leagues.

My approach is not flashy but to utilize my skill in therapeutic interventions to show you that what others may see as a complex fix is actually, most of the time a simple fix with a progression to get you from injured to better than where you were before you started. I advocate for lifting heavy things, loading the body in ways that it needs to be healthy and mobile, and to educate you on how to manage your injury.

I am a Running Rehab Expert so anyone who is planning anything from starting to run/run again or run an ultra marathon I can provide them with the necessary programming and treatment that will manage their injuries and recovery. I am also working on completing a certification for each major joint of the upper extremity (shoulder, elbow, and wrist) and have recently completed a wrist and hand treatment course that provides me the most up to date research to treat these issues. The wrist and hand are particularly challenging issues and injuries to deal with and require a multidisciplinary approach which I can be a part of.

I want my clients to know that I am invested in getting them better as quickly as possible and that includes getting them better than they were before the injury. The reason I do this is because an injury typically occurs due to trauma or excessive load/repetitive movements and if we stop therapy when you only get back to where you were before the injury there’s a likelihood I will see you again for the same issue. I don’t want that, if I see you again I want it to be for another injury or issue because that means we did the rehab right the first time.

Also I do cash pay but that does mean you can still submit any visits with me to your insurance. Cash pay allows you to eliminate the wait time of getting orders from your doctor and then waiting for a clinic to get in contact with you to schedule an evaluation and then hopefully you get 1 on 1 treatment. I want you to also realize that your physical health is an important investment and want to show you how to invest in yourself and your health.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

If I could go back in time and choose my same profession, I would change my profession. The only problem is I have no very little idea of what that change would have been because I was always told I should be a teacher and I don’t think I have the patience to be a teacher in a classroom.

There’s a lot wrong with the medical model in the US and despite all the money spent people on average live shorter lives and spend incredible amounts of money for poorer health outcomes compared with all other developed countries we love to compare ourselves to.

This is part of the reason I started the business because part of my core identity that I find brings me a lot of joy is helping people and I know, because of my profession, how to best help people improve their physical health. So that still motivates me and I enjoy connecting with and caring for people that are in need.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson that I have had to unlearn is to not attach my self worth to my paycheck. Unfortunately this lesson is a repeated learning experience especially when living in Denver and the cost of everything goes up year to year. I think I have the typical American upbringing messaging from society, especially as a man, that you have to provide, you have to make more money, and your self worth becomes attached to these.

So when you’re working incredibly hard and seeing a small or shrinking paycheck and wrap that up in those ideas of providing and always making more it becomes very toxic. It makes it almost impossible to see your self worth outside of just the financial side of life and makes you only focus on that while missing everything else.

I still fall into this way of thinking because it is most of what I have known and when things get difficult or challenging in life my response is to work harder and dig deeper perhaps not realizing that I’m just digging a deeper hole when I could have just stepped out of the hole well before I became stuck down there and then need someone to pull me out.

Hopefully that makes sense. The lesson, make sure you see yourself as a whole person not just a paycheck.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.threelionspt.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threelionspt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threelionspt
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/matt-kelson-pt-dpt-2a8039104
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@threelionsphysicaltherapy

Image Credits

Instagram @tonycicconephotography